(FAZ) A sporty welcome to this week’s football interaction. We are now in the middle of the FIFA Window with all senior teams engaged as has become our tradition. The Chipolopolo are heading to Jerusalem for an international friendly match with Israel while the FIFA World Cup bound Copper Queens are in Colombia where they have a two-match international engagement.
The first match was played on Sunday morning (CAT) with the 2022 WAFCON bronze winners losing 1-0. It was a good test for the lasses with the second match coming on Tuesday to conclude their assignment. For the second match, the team would have settled and acclimatized and will be expected to give the Colombians a stronger challenge. It was good to see some of the players that have been off national duty for a while return to action.
Preparations will heighten as we draw closer to the World Cup next year where we are the same group with Spain, Japan and Costa Rica. We will not relent in giving the team quality preparations as part of our commitment to ensuring that the World Cup appearance will be memorable. The stock of the Copper Queens has been growing having made a debut Olympic appearance and now senior world cup appearance. We have lined up some prospective friendly matches and hopefully we can host a world cup bound team at home for the Copper Queens to give the fans an opportunity to watch their team on home soil.
We are also excited when we look at the upcoming players that are giving the technical bench welcome selection headaches. The door is still open for any promising players from our local and international leagues.
On the men’s side of business, the selection for the next Chipolopolo coach is underway with the candidates now down to three. We would like to commend the panel of experts that has been handling the process for the meticulous manner they have conducted the exercise. The wide representation across football stakeholders lends to the credibility of the process. We are grateful to government for having taken interest in the matter which makes the process a lot easier. We expect the Chipolopolo coach will be in place in good time to help us prepare for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. With the number of players plying their trade in competitive leagues across the globe it should not be very hard to mould the Chipolopolo into a strong force. We have never shied away from giving the Chipolopolo engagements across all seasons and this week they will be in Israel with the Moses Sichone led technical bench continuing the journey. It is a good opportunity to see the players continue bonding and building on the competitiveness of the squad. We wish the team the best of luck on that assignment.
The under-17 boys and girls will be competing at the Region V Games in Malawi. The boys’ tournament is an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier which has pushed us to attach great importance. With the under-20 already qualified and the under-23 well on the way, we hope that the under-17 can add to that beautiful story. We have no doubt that success at the junior level will ultimately translate into success for the senior team. We will continue investing in junior teams especially tapping from the grassroots.
Have a pleasant week!